5 sites in state get bird designation

Published 1:00 am, Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Ask people about farm birds and they'll think chicken or geese, not Savannah sparrows or meadowlarks.

But in Connecticut, farms - open fields, pastures and brush lots - are disappearing. They've grown back to forest or sprouted homes and big-box stores. The host of birds that
dep
end either on grass or brush to live are also dwindling or leaving the scene entirely.
"It's certainly one of the most threatened habitat types in the state," said
Patrick Comins
, director of bird conservation for Audubon Connecticut. "It doesn't have the legal protections that wetlands have, and it's very attractive to developers."
To help protect and promote the grassland habitat left in the state, Audubon Connecticut has named four grassland site and one scrub forest site Important Bird Areas.
The five are:
Good Hill Farm Preserve in Woodbury and Roxbury.
The meadows of Topsmead State Forest in Litchfield.
Naugatuck State Forest in Naugatuck and Beacon Falls.
The

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's Bafflin Sanctuary in Pomfret.
Northwest Park in Windsor.
The designation does not add any protection to sites. But the program does mean recognition by Birdlife International - a global alliance of conservation groups that includes the National Audubon Society - of a site's importance for birds. With these five, there are now 27 Important Bird Areas in Connecticut.
Grasslands, open fields and scrub forest have always been part of the state's landscape. The state's thriving pre-Colonial beaver population built dams that flooded large tracts of forest, killing the trees. These tracts eventually became meadows within the forest. The state's Native Americans also burnt the forest to clear trees both for hunting and agriculture.
The

Connecticut Grasslands Working Group
in 2003 estimated that before European settlers arrived, 9 percent of the state's land was open.
These days, the group said, only about 2 percent of the state is meadow and field - less than any time in its history.
The birds that need such habitat for nesting have no place to go. Some grassland species such as Vesper sparrows, Upland sandpipers Sedge wrens and Short-Eared owls are largely gone from the state.
Other, once common birds are in steep decline. Eastern meadowlarks have declined by about 10 percent a year since 1966, according to the Audubon Society. Only about 10 known nesting sites exist in the state for American kestrels, small, beautiful falcons.
Because of these declines, people are taking notice.
"Grassland habitat has been one of our highest priorities for the past 10 years or so," said
Jennie Dickson
, a wildlife biologist with the state DEP. "It's now gotten to the point where we can take steps like these."
Of the five sites named, some are already managed to promote bird life. Topsmead State Forest in Litchfield sustains its population of bobolinks, Dickson said, because the state allows farmers to hay its fields only after the nesting birds have fledged and left their nests on the ground.
The Good Hill Farm Preserve in Woodbury and Roxbury is a working farm. To keep it that way , the
Roxbury Land Trust
bought 467 acres.
Julie Steers
, the trust's executive director, said the group's first priority is to keep the land as a working farm.
"It's a farm and we lease it to farmers," she said. "It's their livelihood."
But she also said the trust's members are aware of the land's rich bird life.
"You go other there in the spring evenings and there are so many birds there - it's wonderful," she said.
As a result, she said, the land trust and Audubon Connecticut have begun to discuss how the land might be managed to benefit both farmers and birds.
"We'll learn more as we go along," Steers said. "Hopefully, we can work together and achieve both goals."
Keeping these sites open doesn't just benefit the state. Grassland and scrub species are declining nationally as well, so preserving the land in Connecticut can have an impact beyond the state's borders. For example, Blue-winged warblers - colorful spring migrants - are in decline. Despite this, the state is recognized as a globally significant region for preserving the birds.
"People in Connecticut say 'Blue-winged warblers are everywhere,'" Dickson said. "So a place like the Naugatuck State Forest is important. It's a stop-over for spring and fall migrants. It's one of the places they need."

To learn more about the Important Bird Areas program, go to its Web site at
www.audubon.org/bird/iba